eatened him most hideously
with my revolver, and left the white teeth chattering in his black head
as I took the stairs three at a time. Why I went upstairs in that
decisive fashion, as though it were my only course, I cannot explain.
But garden and ground floor seemed alive with men, and I might have
done worse.

I turned into the first room I came to. It was a bedroom--empty,
though lit up; and never shall I forget how I started as I entered, on
encountering the awful villain that was myself at full length in a
pier-glass! Masked, armed, and ragged, I was indeed fit carrion for a
bullet or the hangman, and to one or the other I made up my mind.
Nevertheless, I hid myself in the wardrobe behind the mirror; and there
I stood shivering and cursing my fate, my folly, and Raffles most of
all--Raffles first and last--for I daresay half an hour. Then the
wardrobe door was flung suddenly open; they had stolen into the room
without a sound; and I was hauled downstairs, an ignominious captive.

Gross scenes followed in the hall; the ladies were now upon the stage,
and at sight of the desperate criminal they screamed with one accord.
In truth I must have given them fair cause, though my mask was now torn
away and hid nothing but my left ear. Rosenthall answered their
shrieks with a roar for silence; the woman with the bath-sponge hair
swore at him shrilly in return; the place became a Babel impossible to
describe. I remember wondering how long it would be before the police
appeared. Purvis and the ladies were for calling them in and giving me
in charge without delay. Rosenthall would not hear of it. He swore
that he would shoot man or woman who left his sight. He had had enough
of the police. He was not going to have them coming there to spoil
sport; he was going to deal with me in his own way. With that he
dragged me from all other hands, flung me against a door, and sent a
bullet crashing through the wood within an inch of my ear.

"You drunken fool! It'll be murder!" shouted Purvis, getting in the
way a second time.

"Wha' do I care? He's armed, isn't he? I shot him in self-defence.
It'll be a warning to others. Will you stand aside, or d'ye want it
yourself?"

"You're drunk," said Purvis, still between us. "I saw you take a neat
tumblerful since you come in, and it's made you drunk as a fool. Pull
yourself together, old man. You ain't a-going to do what you'll be
sorry for."

"Then I won't shoot at